Cost of do-it-yourself irrigation ?

[Anonymous]

I'm reading the Ortho book about irrigation. In terms of skill, looks like no real problem...just some hard work.

I'm wondering how much I should expect to spend for all the materials? I have 1.75 acres.

A guy from my church owns a landscape company, and he gives me "friend" prices on stuff. For example, I used to fertilize my lawn throughout the season. He offered to do it for $85 per application. That's less than what I paid for Scotts and did it myself!

The nextdoor neighbor with the same size lot gets charged $200 per application.

Anyway, this landscape guy said he could install irrigation on my property for "about $6000." I'm going to get a firm quote from him.

The quote I got from a different company last year was $10,000, over $3000 of that was for labor. So I'm wondering if the "friend price" of $6000 is what I would pay for materials, and then still worry about screwing something up.

[Keith Warren]

For a DIY job, the $6K sounds high. If it is the friend price for the total install, it is probably a little more in-line, but a lot more than I would pay (I am admittedly cheap:-).

Just as a reference, at our previous home I installed my 3rd overall system (Parents and Parent-in-laws were the first guinea pigs) covering about 7/8 of an acre. I put in 8 zones, with 2 controllers, a backflow valve and a total of 37 heads at a total cost of just slightly less than $850 which included the $175 per day cost of a rider-type Ditch-Witch Trencher. (I don't remember the total amount of pipe used, but it was substantial because

4 of the zones ran all the way from the front of the house and around the pool in the backyard.) I used the Rainbird products sold at Home Depot at the time and while, yes, I agree that the ones sold at a landscaping supply house are probably of better quality, this system is currently 7 years old and has not had a single head, valve or controller failure yet.

Keith

[Anonymous]

On Tue, 12 Jul 2005 10:57:07 -0400, "Keith Warren"

Well, the quote I got last year says 90 heads. So even double that cost is great!

I will have to pay $1600 to upgrade my well pump and tank as well.

So was it pretty easy to do?

I think getting an acurate drawing of my property will be one of the hardest things. I have a pentagonal lot.

Also, I have a semicircular driveway out front. What will I have to do to get the piping into that area?